Humble Leadership and Employee Feedback Seeking: The Role of Affective Trust in the Leader and Perceived Human Resource Management Strength

ABSTRACT Despite the burgeoning literature on leadership and employees' feedback‐seeking behaviors, research linking contemporary leadership styles and feedback seeking is still limited. Our study examines the role of humble leadership on employees' feedback‐seeking behaviors. Based on three‐wave data from 172 employees, our results show that humble leadership has a positive effect on feedback‐seeking behaviors via employees' affective trust in the leader when the mediating effects of psychological safety and cognitive trust were controlled. Furthermore, the overall mediation effect of affective trust is strengthened by higher levels of employees' perceived human resource management strength. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.